International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 4 (2015) 351e355

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International Journal for Parasitology:

Parasites and Wildlife
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijppaw

Current opinion

Caryospora neofalconis and other enteroparasites in raptors from

Mexico

nchez a, I.T. Flores-Valle b, M. Gonza

lez-Go

mez b, V. Vega-Sa

nchez b,
G. Santana-Sa
C. Salgado-Miranda a, E. Soriano-Vargas a, *

n y Estudios Avanzados en Salud Animal, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Auto

noma del Estado de
Centro de Investigacio
M

exico, Carretera Toluca-Atlacomulco km 15.5, Toluca 50200, M

exico, Mexico
b
Universidad Polit

ecnica del Valle de Toluca, Toluca 50904, M

exico, Mexico
a

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 11 June 2015
Received in revised form
29 July 2015
Accepted 19 August 2015

A coprological survey of enteroparasites in raptors (60 Falconiformes) from Central Mexico is reported.
Three samples contained coccidian unsporulated oocysts, one contained Eimeria sp., one contained
trematode eggs and one contained capillarid and trematode eggs and Eimeria sp. After sporulation at the
laboratory, oocysts from a Falco peregrinus were identied as Caryospora neofalconis. The phylogenetic
analysis of the C. neofalconis (GenBank accession number KT037081) showed a close relationship to the
Australian strain RY 2014 isolate 16710 (GenBank accession number KJ634019) of Caryospora daceloe,
with 99.2% similarity. As far as we are aware, this is the rst report of C. neofalconis in raptors from
Mexico and the Americas.
2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Australian Society for Parasitology. This is an
open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Keywords:
Caryospora neofalconis
Eimeriidae
Enteroparasites
Falconiformes
Mexico
America

1. Introduction
Enteroparasites are common in wild and captive raptors, and
can become signicant pathogens if the bird is subjected to
excessive stress or disease. Coccidiosis with clinical signs of
anorexia or vomiting is recognized in raptors (Klaphake and Claney,
2005). The genus Caryospora (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) includes
coccidian Protozoa and is the third largest genus in the family
Eimeriidae. Among these coccidian is the genus Caryospora which
infects primarily predatory birds and reptiles (Upton et al., 1986).
At least 25 species of Caryospora have been identied from birds
worldwide (Yang et al., 2014). Of the species identied in birds, 15
have been identied in raptors: 7 from Europe, 2 from Saudi Arabia,
1 from Russia, and 5 from USA (Upton et al., 1990; Alfaleh et al.,
2013; McAllister et al., 2013).
In the present study, enteroparasites in raptors from Mexico
were surveyed and Caryospora neofalconis oocysts were identied

n y Estudios Avanzados en Salud

* Corresponding author. Centro de Investigacio

noma del
Animal, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Auto

xico, Carretera Toluca-Atlacomulco km. 12, Toluca 50200, Me

xico,
Estado de Me
Mexico.
E-mail address: soriano@uaemex.mx (E. Soriano-Vargas).

in a peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). As far as we aware, this is

the rst report of C. neofalconis in raptors from Mexico and from the
Americas.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Animal sampling
A total of 60 fresh fecal samples collected during July, 2014 to
January, 2015 from healthy, captive Falconiformes in Central
Mexico (Guanajuato, Mexico, and Veracruz States). Samples were
from Accipiter gentilis (1), Accipiter cooperii (1), Falco cherrug (6),
Falco femoralis (1), Falco pelegrinoides (2), F. peregrinus (26), Falco
sparverius (2) and Parabuteo unicinctus (21). Some birds were being
rehabilitated for reintroduction, kept in aviary facilities. During
sampling, all the birds were fed chicken, Japanese quail, pigeon, or
mouse. Some of the F. peregrinus were fed pigeons and some
P. unicinctus were fed free-living white-sided jackrabbits (Lepus
callotis).
2.2. Microscopic analysis
Fecal samples were collected in individual plastic tubes, which

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2015.08.004
2213-2244/ 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Australian Society for Parasitology. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).


nchez et al. / International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 4 (2015) 351e355
G. Santana-Sa

352

were identied, packed into a cooler and immediately transported

n y Estudios Avanzados en Salud Animal
to Centro de Investigacio
(CIESA-FMVZ-UAEM). The feces were mixed with a 2.5% potassium
dichromate solution (K2Cr2O7; SIGMA, St. Louis, MO, USA). Samples
with unsporulated coccidian oocysts were placed in a thin layer
(5 ml) of K2Cr2O7 in Petri dishes, incubated at 23e28
C and
monitored daily, until 70% of oocysts were sporulated. Oocysts were
recovered using the Sheather's otation method with sucrose solution and microscopically examined (Duszynski and Wilber, 1997).
For image capture, a digital camera (Nikon DS-Fi2) coupled to a
light microscope Nikon, Eclipse 80i (Nikon Corporation, Tokyo,
Japan), was used. For oocyst measurements the Nikon NIS Elements
Software was used.
2.3. Molecular analysis
Before DNA extraction, oocyst samples were washed three times
in InhibitEX Buffer (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany) by centrifugation.
Subsequently, oocyst pellets were resuspended in InhibitEX buffer
and then sonicated (Sonier 250, Branson, Emerson Electric Co.,
Ferguson, MO, USA) in ice in three cycles of 5 s (60% pulsed output;
power output 5).
DNA was extracted directly from oocysts and puried by using
QIAamp Fast DNA Stool Mini Kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany), according to the manufacturer's protocols. The 18S ribosomal RNA
(rRNA) gene was amplied from both unsporulated and sporulated
coccidian oocysts by using conditions and primers described by
Yang et al. (2012): forward primer EIF1 50 -GCTTGTCTCAAAGATTAAGCC-3 (previously described by Power et al., 2009), reverse
primer EIR3 50 -ATGCATACTCAAAAGATTACC-3. Products of the rst
PCR were used as template for a second amplication: forward
primer EIF3 50 -CTATGGCTAATACATGCGCAATC- 30 and the reverse
primer EIR3 to obtain a 1399e1407 bp fragment (Yang et al., 2012).
For PCR, GoTaq Flexi DNA Polymerase and dNTP Mix (PROMEGA,
Madison, WI, USA) were used. Amplication was performed in 50 ml
volumes containing 10 ml of GoTaq Flexi Buffer (5X), 4 ml MgCl2
Solution (25 mM), 2 ml of PCR Nucleotide Mix (10 mM each dNTP),
2 ml of each primer, 5 ml of DNA template, 24.75 ml of PCR grade
water and 0.25 ml of GoTaq Flexi DNA Polymerase (5 U/ml). The PCR
conditions consisted of an initial denaturation at 94
C for 5 min,
followed by 30 cycles of denaturation at 94
C for 30 s, annealing at
57
C for 30 s, extension at 72
C for 2 min and a nal extension at
72
C for 10 min. And for EIF3 and EIR3 primers, the amplication
reactions consisted of an initial denaturation at 94
C for 3 min,
followed by 40 cycles of denaturation at 94
C for 30 s, annealing at
60
C for 30 s, extension at 72
C for 1.5 min and a nal extension at
72
C for 7 min. The PCR products were analyzed by electrophoresis
on a 1.0% (w/v) agarose gel in TBE (1X) buffer (PROMEGA, Madison,
WI, USA), stained with ethidium bromide and visualized in a UV
transilluminator. The image was captured using a MiniBis Pro
photodocumentation system (DNR Bio-Imaging Systems Ltd., Jerusalem, Israel). The PCR products were puried from agarose gel
using a Wizard SV Gel and PCR Clean-Up System (PROMEGA,

Madison, WI, USA), according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Then, the DNA products were visualized on a 1% agarose gel to
conrm the purication. The DNA products were quantied using a
Q5000 UVeVis Spectrophotometer (Quawell, San Jose, CA, USA).
The sequencing of 18S rRNA gene was performed at Macrogen
(Seoul, Republic of Korea) using the Sanger dideoxy DNA terminator sequencing method. A Basic Local Alignment Search Tool
(BLAST, National Center for Biotechnology Information, Bethesda,
MD, USA) search was performed in GenBank (Altschul et al., 1997).
Pairwise comparisons for similarity were performed by the program WATER included in European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite (EMBOSS, The European Bioinformatics Institute,
Cambridgeshire, UK) (Rice et al., 2000). The phylogenetic analysis
was performed by construction of a multiple alignment, removal of
gapped columns, and analysis by the maximum likelihood method
(Yang et al., 2014) conducted using MEGA 5.2 (Tamura et al., 2011).
3. Results and discussion
Seven of the 60 examined raptors contained enteroparasites:
One F. peregrinus shed only trematode eggs (119.8 mm  77.5 mm)
and another F. peregrinus shed capillarid (63.5 mm  31.1 mm) and
trematode eggs (128.9 mm  76.6 mm) and unsporulated coccidian
oocysts. After sporulation, oocysts from one F. pelegrinoides were
identied as Eimeria sp., labeled as strain ESV-17. Oocysts from the
P. unicinctus were ellipsoidal (22.2 mm  15.9 mm), with a bilayered
wall and an oocyst residuum present as a spherical compact mass
(2.2 mm); these were identied as Eimeria sp. and labeled as strain
ESV-9 (Table 1). Oocysts from the F. peregrinus were identied as C.
neofalconis and labeled as strain ESV-19. Sporulated oocysts
(n 30) were spherical to subspherical, 26.3 mm length  23.9 mm
width (Fig. 1, Table 2). Santos et al. (2011) reported gastro-intestinal
parasites in 9 of 66 Falconiformes and 1 of 8 Strigiformes from an

n y
animal conservation center in Mexico (Centro de Investigacio

n de Vida Silvestre in Los Reyes La Paz, Mexico State).
Conservacio
Eggs of Capillaria spp., Eimeria spp., trematode eggs and Trichomonas gallinae were observed. In the present study, capillarid eggs
obtained from an F. peregrinus might be Capillaria sp. Similarly,
trematode eggs obtained from two F. peregrinus might be Neodiplostomum attenuatum. These parasites are commonly found in
birds of prey (Krone and Cooper, 2002; Huffman, 2008).
A sequence for the 18S rRNA gene of the unsporulated coccidian
oocysts (ESV-17) from a F. pelegrinoides was obtained and was most
closely related to Eimeria acervulina, an eimerid from the domestic
chicken (Gallus domesticus), with 93.7% similarity. A sequence for
the 18S rRNA gene of the sporulated oocysts (ESV-9), from a
P. unicinctus was obtained and was most closely related to
E. chinchilla, an eimerid from the long-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla
laniger), with 98.9% similarity. A sequence for the 18S rRNA gene of
the strain ESV-19 of C. neofalconis was obtained and deposited in
GenBank (accession number KT037081). The C. neofalconis recovered was most closely related to strain RY 2014 isolate 16710
(Genbank accession number KJ634019) of Caryospora daceloe, with

Table 1
Enteroparasites recovered from 7 positive raptors in the survey.
Host

Locality

Parasite

Falco pelegrinoides
F. peregrinus
F. peregrinus
F. peregrinus
Parabuteo unicinctus
P. unicinctus
P. unicinctus

Xalapa, Veracruz
Xalapa, Veracruz

xico
Toluca, Me

xico
Ecatepec, Me

n, Me

xico
Villa del Carbo

n, Me

xico
Villa del Carbo

xico
Texcoco, Me

Eimeria sp. (strain ESV-17)

Caryospora neofalconis (strain ESV-19)
Capillarid, trematode, Eimeria sp.
Trematode
Eimeria sp. (strain ESV-9)
Unsporulated coccidian oocysts
Unsporulated coccidian oocysts


nchez et al. / International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 4 (2015) 351e355
G. Santana-Sa

99.2% similarity. A phylogenetic analysis (Fig. 2) was performed

with the sequence determined in the current study. Selected
available sequences of apicomplexan organisms were included in
the analysis. The human genotype of Cryptosporidium parvum
(Genbank accession number AF093491) was used as an outgroup.
In the phylogenetic analysis of the 18S rRNA gene, the Eimeria
sp. (ESV-9) was clustered into a small mammals genetic lineage
(Fig. 2). The P. unicinctus that shed this eimerid was fed free-living
white-sided jackrabbits (L. callotis). The shape of this Eimeria spp.
ESV-9 was similar to the bilayered, ellipsoidal and elongate shape of
most of the Eimeria sporulated oocysts from other Lepus species
(Duszynski and Couch, 2013). This suggests that the Eimeria sp.
observed in the feces of the P. unicinctus, may belong to the whitesided jackrabbits (L. callotis) eaten a day previously. The Eimeria sp.
ESV-17 was clustered into an avian genetic lineage (Fig. 2). The
F. pelegrinoides from which ESV-17 was obtained was fed pigeons
two days prior to the sampling. It is not possible to discriminate

353

between coccidia from pigeons and raptors. Reports of eimerid

parasites in raptors in the wild might also include parasites from
prey e spurious parasitism.
Members of the genus Caryospora are the most important cau er in
ses of health disorders in falconid birds (Upton et al., 1990). Bo
Germany described C. neofalconis for the rst time by in 1982
(Upton et al., 1990). A diagnosis of C. neofalconis was made in 14
juvenile merlins (Falco columbarius) and one juvenile snowy owl
(Nyctea scandiaca) from breeding facilities in the United Kingdom
(Forbes and Simpson, 1997). In a parasitological study that included
430 fecal samples collected from 91 birds of prey in the Falcon
Breeding Facility in Milotice in the Czech Republic, C. neofalconis
was detected in four falcons suffering from diarrhea and lethargy.
Subsequently, oocysts of C. neofalconis were found in 68 samples
collected from 30 birds (Pavlk et al., 1998).
As far as we aware, this is the rst report of C. neofalconis in
raptors from Mexico and from the Americas.

Fig. 1. Photomicrographs of Caryospora neofalconis showing one spherical to subspherical unsporulated oocyst (A). Wall bilayered oocysts (B and C) and oocyst residuum present as
a spheric diffuse mass (D). Scale bar 10 mm.


nchez et al. / International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 4 (2015) 351e355
G. Santana-Sa

354

Table 2
Comparative data of Caryospora species described from raptors.
Caryospora
species

Oocyst shape

Oocyst size Sporocyst shape Sporocyst size

(mm)
(mm)

Locality

C. aquilae

Subspherical to
ellipsoidal
Ovoid
Subspherical
Ovoid
Ovoid

43.0  37.5 Spherical to

subspherical
40.2  34.7 Spherical
36.6  33.4 Ovoid
32.1  29.3 Ellipsoid
24.5  21.8 Spherical to
subspherical
29.5  36.5 Spherical
48.1  42.1 Spherical

23.8  23.3

Czech Republic Aquila chrysaetos

Volf et al., 2000

20.1
27.8  19.6
24.1  19.6
16.2  15.6

Saudi Arabia
Europe
Saudi Arabia
Czech Republic

Falco biarmicus
F. tinnunculus
F. cherrug
Circus aeruginosus

Alyousif et al., 2011

Alfaleh et al., 2013
Alfaleh et al., 2013
Volf et al., 2000

21.0  23.0
24.8

Europe
Kansas, USA

F. peregrinus, F. subbuteo, F. tinnunculus

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Alfaleh et al., 2013

McAllister et al., 2013

21.6
e25.2  19.8
e21.6
22.5
24.6  21.0
19.2e22.0
23.8

Saint
Petersburg,
Russia
Kansas, USA
Europe
Kansas, USA
Europe

F. subbuteo, F. tinnunculus
Bubo bubo

Yakimoff and
Matschulsky, 1936
Upton et al., 1990
Alfaleh et al., 2013
Upton et al., 1990
Alfaleh et al., 2013

C.
C.
C.
C.

biarmicusis
boeri
cherrughi
circi

C. falconis
C. hanebrinki
C. henryae

C.
C.
C.
C.

kansasensis
kutzeri
lindsayi
megafalconis

Spherical
Ellipsoidal to
ovoidal
Ovoid

41.0  37.0 Ovoid






37.2
38.7
33.7
43.6

C. neofalconis

Ovoid
Subspherical
Subspherical
Subspherical or
ovoid
Subspherical

27.0  23.8 Ovoid

18.8  14.8

Europe

C. petersoni

Subspherical

23.4  23.3

Kansas, USA

C. uptoni

Spherical or
subspherical
Spherical to
subspherical

43.1  39.8 Subspherical to

spherical
28.1  26.4 Spherical

Buteo swainsonii
F. biarmicus, F. cherrug, F. jugger, F. mexicanus
Buteo jamaicensis
F. biarmicus, F. mexicanus, F. peregrinus,
F. subbuteo
F. biarmicus, F. mexicanus, F. subbuteo,
F. tinnunculus, F. peregrinus
Accipiter striatus

18.2  17.9

Alabama, USA

Buteo jamaicensis boreales, B. borealis

26.3  23.9 Ellipsoid

17.9  14.8

Mexico

F. peregrinus

C. neofalconis

32.6
34.1
31.6
35.8

Spherical
Ovoid
Spherical
Spherical

Host

Reference

Upton et al., 1990

McAllister et al., 2013
Lindsay and Blagburn,
1986, 1989
This study

Fig. 2. Phylogenetic relationship of Caryospora neofalconis, strain ESV-19, based on maximum likelihood analysis of 18S rRNA gene sequences. The numbers at nodes indicate
bootstrap values obtained from 1000 resamplings. The scale bar represents sequence variation.

Conict of interest
The authors declared that there is no conict of interest.
Acknowledgments

noma del Estado
This study was supported by Universidad Auto

xico, project PIFI 2013.
de Me

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